Hi all,

maybe someone has read the (really long) thread about me having problems getting the
well known software "Maya" from Alias|Wavefront to run on Redhat (even if the recommend it as configuration...)

After all the stress (and mailing with some great folks from LQ
*greats moses and MasterC* )
I've decided NOT to use RH, not to use Mandrake or Suse
(damn... it's not OK that there's no ISO download for SuSE )
but Slackware/Gentoo/Debian!
I KNOW! I'm a n00b but DAMNIT I'm willing to learn this stuff
and such §&$&§$%& *loud swearing about RH* isn't helping me with this!

I just would like to ask YOU which one of those distros you would recommend.
I've read several reviews about each one of those three, but
in the end I can't decide which one I should try.
Slackware seems to be super stable.
Gentoo is one of those linux-from-scratch things, but I heard that it runs FLAWLESS and fast like the devil (IF you manage to install it *G*)
Debian has a damn hard installation process and over all
I don't know if I should you it.

Anyway - if someone wants to tell me his experience - post here


Cheers

Faeroon


PS: I want to use the system mainly for working with maya (3d design),
gimp, watching movies and listening to mp3's now and then.
PSS: Gentoo sounds "nice"... somehow... hm...

Which is better: chocolate cake or apple pie?

The interesting thing is whatever one you pick someone will probably counter it by telling me that the other one is better. The chocolate cake people will wear their fingers out trying to tell me the benefits of their desert, followed by the apple pie folks telling me what is wrong with chocolate cake and why I should select apple pie. Then the chocolate cake group will counter with what is wrong with apple pie and reinforce their belief in chocolate cake. Out of left field, the bran muffin group will jump in uninvited to point out the problems with both chocolate cake and apple pie, and tell me pick bran muffins! We could have a never-dieing thread of point-counterpoint, which in the end will leave me as confused as when it started.

Or, I could just try chocolate cake and apple pie and see which one I prefer.

OK, enough sarcasm (it was fun, tho!). Look, the "which distro is best" question is the most useless question asked on this forum. It is right up there with what movie should I go see or what book should I read? We can't help with personal preferences.

You want to learn about Slackware, Gentoo and SuSe? Install them, play with them, there is going to be one that you prefer. Then you will know what the best distro is--it is the one that works best for you.

Of the three you listed, I've only tried Gentoo. It's a good distro, but you need patience with it, and/or a fast computer. Portage [the package management system] is awesome. For example, you can install all of kde with a simple command "emerge kde." I'd still be using it, but I lost patience. I don't have a fast computer, and I definately didn't want to wait for the compilation.

As for Debian, my only experience with it comes from apt. I've been using apt on my SuSE box, and it's made me curious about Debian itself. Everyone claims Debian is really hard to use, I've decided to test that out for myself. I know that installing software will be almost as easier (no compilation) than Gentoo. Installing KDE would be (I'm guessing) "apt-get install kde" . Not too shabby.

I haven't tried Slack, but I'm sure I will at some point. I'd suggest you play around with the distros and see which one you like. They've all got strong points and weak points. But at least you'll stay away from RPM hell, since none of them use rpm.

>>I know that installing software will be almost as easier (no compilation) than Gentoo.

Oh yeah... I'm allready trying for hours to install Gentoo 1.4RC2 but somehow I
can't get adsl to run properly (even though I'm trying to follow the install instructions..but I now know that I'm a REAL N00B! )

I've read numerous postings at the gentoo board , regarding similiar problems
("Timeout waiting for PADO packages", "can't read pppoe PID file /var/run/pppoe-conf-adsl.pid.pppoe" etc etc etc)
and somehow it seems that nearly everyone solved this problem by recompiling the kernel with all the ppp stuff in it...
ok.. I've NEVER compiled a kernel before...
That's something I've got to figure out now...

Wish me luck (or maybe someone got time to help me)

Faeroon, congrats on making the 200,000th post on this site! no prize i'm afriad...

WHOOOHOO! What an honour!
*proud*
I want to thank my parents for being so great! My english teacher because without him I wouldn't be able to post here!
I've to thank also... *rolls out the list*

But honestly - a little help on this gentoo thing would be price enough.

ha ha ha ha, really 200,000th post, or just the 200,000th post regarding favorite distro?

Faeroon, I'm gonna do what no one else will do 50 times, but that's just because I'm MasterC and that's what he does, repeat himself 50 times

Slackware is by far the best. It's the chocolate cake and everyone knows chocolate cake is better It's the most unix like distro, and probably one of the oldest. Onto why I'd suggest this one for you...

It's AS GOOD, (if not better) as the other 2 distros you've mentioned, yet will be easier to setup/administer out of the box, and you've got an entire forum dedicated to helping you! Gentoo and Debian are cool, but they just don't seem to cut it quite as nice as Slack does.



Debian is great for ultra stable systems and getting dependencies taken care of, but just lacks something, probably the typing involved with actually installing a package..

Gentoo, well I can't say much about it, I've never given it a run for it's money, however if you are going with Linux From Scratch, why not go to www.linuxfromscratch.org ?

Ah yes, flames are hot when you respond to questions like this as I did, but I just figure I have to once in a while

Cool

*GGG*
MasterC - nice and shiny as usual
Know what? Gonna try and install slackware 8.1 right away
Downloaded it some days ago, because moses named it as a suitable system (he even got maya to run there with no probs) and
if it's true what you say ("you've got an entire forum dedicated to helping you!")...ooooh man... before the day ends you'll wish that you've never said that
My daily questions will haunt your dreams (or shall I say nightmares) till the end of all time
MUAHAHAHAHHAHAR!
*vanishes with a small *POOF* and gives sw8.1 a try*


PS: Is SW8.1 really just one cd?
I've heard there are 4cds but on the ftps I can find only the 8.1install iso *shrugs and tries*

yeah it's just the one. i think there was a second image for some kde crap, but they slimmed it own to fit on one.

And the other 3 are a Live CD for either showing off the talents of linux, or for rescue; um, cannot remember the others, probably a source disc, and a documentation disc, oh and probably an "extra's" disc... Now I am gonna have to go find out otherwise it'll bug me

Cool

Ahh, ease my mind: http://store.slackware.com/cgi-bin/s...X9M6S&mv_pc=12


Cool

Just installed slackware - easy like a breeze *G*
Writing this under windows and hope that the next post will be written under linux
Wish me luck

PS: Brrrr...why still those old fashioned non-graphic installers? brrrrr... my eyes...

It's slack, nothing graphical about it that wasn't written by Xfree86 Not really, but you won't find the fancy dancy (completely un-necessary) tools that you had before. Pure CLI from now on... Ah, it's so nice.

You did pick up a pocket protector correct? You'll need it with as geeky as you'll get pretty soon

Some problems to address for you quickly. Find out what it's gonna take to get your graphics drivers goin. If sound is a big deal to you, get that info as well. If you have questions that aren't answered in a search, post em I'll be happy to help where I can.

Welcome to Slack, the air is slightly cleaner over here

Cool

Bah... it's 4 in the morning and I'm DEAD tired *yawns*
First boot: black screen
Second boot: with boot disc
startx gave me Error
After that I've searched the board, read about
xf86config and tried it. Put in the correct hsync and vsync
values for my Siemens MCM21P1 , choose 128MB for
my graphic card, named it MSI GForce 4
Tried to startx:
Again searched the boards...
Next reboot: tried xfree86setup
told me that it would make a new XF86Config and back up
the old one - after that it shut itself down, told me that
for this card i should run scanpci -v (or something like that... sorry... I'm so damn tired) and after that I could read all the
nice technical stuff from my card.

I'm going to sleep now... maybe someone can give me a hint what I'm doing wrong...
Damn...what a day...

Yeah, it's nice trying to get X up. That was my first obstacle, but after you do it, you'll know how to do it on every linux box you play with on that hardware.

xf86config is usually what I use, however I do have to go in manually afterwards and edit a few lines. You might wanna post up your config file so we can check it out, maybe point somethings out.

Cool